Bats go quiet at wrong time for ’Riders in loss

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRider Kyle Roller (23) is congratulated by Zelous Wheeler (18) after hitting a three run home run in the first inning of play against the Toledo Mud Hens at PNC Filed on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Jake Danna Stevens / Staff Photographer

MOOSIC — Long after it struck first and even after the game went to extra innings, the RailRiders’ offense finally paid for not coming through when it mattered.

Jordan Lennerton hit a three-run home run over the left field wall against reliever Jim Miller in the 10th inning, and Toledo earned a split of their four-game series with the RailRiders with a 6-3 win on Tuesday night at PNC Field.

The RailRiders completed their wild eight-game homestand, posting a 3-5 record. For the first time in the series, too, it struggled through a long stretch of futility — and did so at the worst time.

“We wonder why we’re 32-32. It’s because we’re not very consistent,” manager Dave Miley said. “That’s the key word that jumps out at me. To be successful, you have to put a complete game together more than every other day or whatever. And we’re not doing that.”

As nonexistent as the offense was for the rest of the night, it sure did look strong in the first inning.

Jose Pirela and Francisco Cervelli started with back-to-back singles against right-hander Drew VerHagen, but an unlucky break nearly ended up preventing the big inning.

Zoilo Almonte lined a fastball hard in the direction of Hernan Perez, the shortstop who gloved it in an eye-blink and made a quick snap throw to first to double off Cervelli, who strayed too far from the bag.

Verhagen, though, couldn’t escape the damage that seemed due to him after so many hard-hit pitches. He walked Zelous Wheeler after an eight-pitch battle, then Kyle Roller slugged a pitch over the wall in left-center for a three-run homer that put the RailRiders up.

The RailRiders offense spent the rest of the game squandering chances.

Rob Refsnyder’s first career Triple-A hit, a bloop single to left, started the second. But he was erased on an Austin Romine double play grounder.

Pirela opened the third with a single, but he was caught stealing.

They had two runners on and one out in the fifth, and Cervelli hit into a twin-killing. Roller would end the sixth with another.

But the best chance came in the seventh. Right-hander Luis Mercedes walked Scott Sizemore on four pitches, and when second baseman Danny Worth’s flip to second on Refsnyder’s slow roller wasn’t in time to get Sizemore, the RailRiders had two on and nobody out.

Romine sacrificed the runners over, but Antoan Richardson’s shallow pop to left got Mercedes into position to escape the mess unscathed. After Pirela hit a chopper to third, he did.

Had it not been for the sixth inning, the pitching staff might have done enough to allow Roller’s homer to trump the missed chances that followed.

Right-hander Shane Greene held the Mud Hens to just one run in four innings. But he struggled to put hitters away and threw 87 pitches without allowing a walk. A two-out wild pitch with the bases loaded allowed Worth to score for the only run he’d permit.

“I was just trying to make pitches and get guys out,” Greene said.

“We’re not getting depth or innings from our starters, which forces us to go to our bullpen early,” Miley added.

The Mud Hens finally got to reliever Mark Montgomery in that sixth though.

Trevor Crowe and Worth both singled, giving the Mud Hens runners at first and second with one out. A grounder in front of the plate by Carrera pushed the runners up a base, and Perez followed by lining a pitch into the left-center field gap that brought both runners home with the tying runs.

Right-hander Preston Claiborne and Miller got the RailRiders through the final three innings of regulation play in good shape, combining to allow only one hit. But the 10th started to turn when Miller walked Ben Guez with one out. Crowe singled him to second before Lennerton, a 2013 IL All-Star who was hitting just .189 with two homers, launched a drive to left-center that landed in the RailRiders’ bullpen.

“Regardless, tied ballgame, you don’t want to be putting guys on for free, so that’s tough,” Miller said. “That kind of led to it. My offspeed stuff wasn’t sharp tonight, and Lennerton hit a changeup out. It didn’t really move. I just sort of hung there.

“We were in the middle of a good run. We just have to come back to work Thursday and start another one.”

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